World’s Favourite Orchestra: A Seaside Stroll for Bournemouth?

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s triumph in our World’s Favourite Orchestra poll may – at first glance – raise a few eyebrows. What is a sleepy seaside town like Bournemouth (and I was born there, so am entitled to make the claim!) doing snatching the crown from reigning champions Cleveland, a much bigger outfit? And where, I hear you cry, were the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Vienna Phil or the London Symphony Orchestra? Surely these are more entitled to claim to be among the world’s best orchestras, so why didn’t they feature strongly?

The clue is in the title. World’s Favourite Orchestra. Favourite. Not best. Even the orchestra’s most ardent fans wouldn’t suggest that – day in, day out – the orchestra can challenge the big beasts of the orchestral jungle. It is an extremely fine orchestra, led by a dynamic young Ukrainian conductor, Kirill Karabits and – on their day – they can pull off superb performances. Karabits has been focusing on Russian composers, particularly Prokofiev, in recent seasons and their performances and recordings have won widespread admiration. Previous principal conductors have brought their specialisms to bear, from Marin Alsop in American music to Paavo Berglund, peerless in Sibelius. Romanian conductor Constantin Silvestri’s recording with the BSO of Elgar’s In the South is arguably still the finest in the catalogue.

How did Bournemouth pull off this coup? I would argue that the orchestra has a strong base of loyal supporters – as many orchestras do – but that they also cover a wide area where they are quite often the only visiting professional orchestra. Despite their name, the orchestra hasn’t been based in Bournemouth for decades, relocating to Poole long before their old Winter Gardens home was razed to the ground in 2006. During the course of a typical season, however, the orchestra tours programmes to halls from Basingstoke and Portsmouth right the way down to the Southwest, to Bristol, Torquay and Exeter. In recent seasons, the BSO has also performed as pit orchestra for some Grange Park Opera. So, not just a loyal fan base, but a large loyal fan base, keen to support.

The orchestra deserves credit for promoting the campaign through social media. Twitter and Facebook pages have been busy prompting supporters to pop along and register their vote and I know that concert subscribers received an email a fortnight ago, spurring them into action. Even today, Kirill Karabits himself filmed a brief address to BSO supporters in a last-ditch appeal for votes! A well-deserved victory for Bournemouth’s team.

Alex Segrave, the BSO's Digital Officer, said “The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is delighted to have been voted the World’s Favourite Orchestra 2014. Our thanks to all who have voted for us in the last month, it is a testament to the loyalty of our supporters from the 10,000 square miles across the South and South West of England that we regularly visit.

“From the smallest to the biggest scale performance, from engaging new people to live music-making to those who have loved music all their lives, our Orchestra has the passion and flexibility to inspire audiences in a way that truly celebrates the role that culture, and in our case music, has and must always have in enhancing and transforming lives.”

Among those orchestras who also featured strongly, social media ensured Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati performed well, while support for Atlanta is doubtless connected to its current financial situation, with difficult wage negotiations taking place. The high number of votes for the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic probably reflects the impact they made on audiences at the BBC Proms this summer.

Orchestras which share a location with other bands inevitably suffer from a split vote. London audiences, for example, have so many 'home team' orchestras to choose from that it takes something special just to reach the top 20, as indeed the LSO achieved.

Here is a selection of Top 10s for those who like lists and statistics. Where there is more than one item on a single line it means that each item has the same number of appearances.
Top 10 contemporary composers
1.
Arvo Pärt
2.
John Williams
3.
John Adams
4.
György Kurtág
5.
Steve Reich
6.
Philip Glass
7.
James MacMillan
8.
Jörg Widmann
9.
Luca Luciano
10.

Mark is one of Bachtrack’s editors and Chair of the Music Section of The Critics' Circle. An experienced opera critic, with a passion for Verdi, he can often be found propping up a standing place at the ROH. He also reviews concerts and dance, with a particular love for Russian and French repertoire. Mark contributes to Gramophone and Opera magazines and blogs at Beckmesser's Quill.

Good point. I voted for Buffalo, but have never visited the city [yet]. I voted for Buffalo because I love the recordings they've been making for Naxos for over a decade now.

Posted on Thursday 09 October 2014 at 12:48

From Disqus user Guest

What? No mention at all in the article about the Buffalo Philharmonic, which came in third place? To me, that's seems a much greater accomplishment than Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Istanbul, cities that are far larger and whose orchestras fared worse -- at least in the rankings if not in the commentary.

Posted on Monday 06 October 2014 at 17:15

From Disqus user VirginiaHepner LikesDeficits

Well. Now we know what Michael Henson has been up to with all his free time since stepping down from the Minnesota Orchestra.

2014Bachtrack Ltdhttps://bachtrack.com/themes/bachtrack2013/mastheadlogo.png2018-01-30UTC15:49:38+00:002014-10-06Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s triumph in our World’s Favourite Orchestra poll may – at first glance – raise a few eyebrows. What is a sleepy seaside town like Bournemouth doing snatching the crown from reigning champions Cleveland, a much bigger outfit?World’s Favourite Orchestra: A Seaside Stroll for Bournemouth?en_GBtruehttps://bachtrack.com/article-bournemouth-worlds-favourite-orchestra-2014Bachtrack Ltdhttps://bachtrack.com/themes/bachtrack2013/mastheadlogo.pngMark Pullingerhttps://bachtrack.com/22/270/list-published/15668https://bachtrack.com/22/270/list-published/15668https://bachtrack.com/files/218-1097_4423_markpullinger.jpgMark is one of Bachtrack’s editors and Chair of the Music Section of The Critics' Circle. An experienced opera critic, with a passion for Verdi, he can often be found propping up a standing place at the ROH. He also reviews concerts and dance, with a particular love for Russian and French repertoire. Mark contributes to Gramophone and Opera magazines and blogs at Beckmesser's Quill. 828Newshttps://bachtrack.com/files/6819-bsologobachtrack.jpg300300BSO logo